Rael G.C.

My current working machine is a Dell Precision M3800, and below are the steps I’ve followed to install/configure Ubuntu 14.04 on it, using a previously created USB stick using the Ubuntu disk creator.

UEFI

ATENTION: Eu don’t have other systems installed on this machine (i.e., Windows 8/10), so my BIOS is configured with UEFI disabled. If you need to use any UEFI operating system, then you’ll be required to have enabled UEFI during install, or enable it after install.

If you’re required to keep UEFI, you’ll find several articles, including the Ubuntu Wiki, which has all the info you’ll need to install or alternate between UEFI usage.

Then, making sure you understood I’m using no UEFI, let’s move forward.

BIOS Configuration

During the boot, press F2 to enter in BIOS configuration setup.

At Boot tab:

disable Secure Boot;

put Boot List Options in Legacy;

for First Boot Priority select USB Storage Device as first device to be used during boot.

Install

After start Ubuntu installer, on 14.04: don’t touch the touchpad. If you touch it, installer will freeze. Use an external mouse, install the system, do all updates, and only after a reboot, then touchpad will work fine.

This is the only caveat during install.

After Install

Few post install issues:

my USB Logitech G330 headset was not playing or recording sounds;

webcam with a too dark image;

wifi was not reconnecting after resume from suspend.

Fortunately, all easy to solve.

Headset USB

For the USB headset, just the standard system update and restart was enough.

Webcam with a too dark image

To change brightness and contrast for your webcam, we need to install a tool called guvcview.

But, on Ubuntu 14.04, it’ll not properly work (it’ll open, but displaying an all black image), because the guvcview version initially used on 14.04 does not support newer kernel versions. But we can easily solve this adding a PPA: